Mario Party: The Top 100
Mario Party: The Top 100 (also called MPTT100 or MP: The Top 100) is a game in the ''Mario Party'' series for the Nintendo 3DS, released initially on November 10, 2017 in North America. It is the twenty-third game in the Mario Party series overall, as well as the third game in the series to be released for Nintendo 3DS. The game is a compilation of various minigames from prior home console Mario Party games, all of which have been redone with updated graphics, sound, and controls, and some of which have slightly altered rules from the original games and recycled music from other games. The game is compatible with local wireless play and Download Play, which allows up to four players. The game supports amiibo, which can be used in the Minigame Island mode or to unlock Minigame Packs. Being initially released approximately two months after its announcement, Mario Party: The Top 100 has one of the shortest announcement to release timelines of retail games in the entire ''Mario'' franchise. Gameplay Unlike the other installments from the Mario Party series, which have a focus on boards and their gameplay, Mario Party: The Top 100 has a focus on the various minigames from home console entries, which serves akin to an extended minigame mode from previous installments. Mario Party: The Top 100 does not introduce any new minigames on its own, serving purely as a compilation for minigames from previous installments. The minigames have players doing various activities in a short time limit, such as racing against opponents in a skating rink or platforming against rivals. Players use Nintendo 3DS capabilities to perform actions, such as tapping objects with the touch screen, blowing into the mic, or using the gyroscope to balance or steer objects, though most minigames use the traditional buttons and control stick format. The goal is to perform the best out of opponents within each minigame rule and controls, which are briefly explained prior to playing the minigame. Some minigames allow players to team up against opponents, either in symmetrical 2-on-2 minigames or asymmetrical 1-on-3 minigames, and some minigames have only two players competing against each other, called Duel minigames. Not limited to these general minigames are DK minigames, Bowser minigames, Extra minigames, and Puzzle minigames from previous installments, all labeled as Special minigames in this game. The game is for four players only: if there are not enough human players, computer-controlled players fill up the slots. These computer players can be adjusted with difficulty levels from Normal, Hard, Very Hard, and the unlockable Master difficulty. There are colors for each player (P1 is red, P2 is blue, P3 is green, and P4 is yellow). Other auxiliary game modes are included in this installment. They provide other ways to play minigames, such as playing through a randomized set of minigames in Minigame Island, or playing a fixed amount and type of minigames to set records in a Decathlon mode. Modes Minigame Island Minigame Island is a board game format where the player travels to a pipe at the end of the board, competing in minigames along the way. The pipe reveals a final opponent. This is the main way to unlock minigames for 100 Minigames mode. Decathlon Players play 5 or 10 minigames with the goal of breaking records. Points are awarded based performance in each minigame which determines who wins Minigame Match Players compete on a board like in Mario Party: Star Rush with Minigame Pack pre-selected when starting the match Championship Battle The basic gameplay mode where players compete in a set of minigames with whoever getting the most wins wins the mode. Cast *Mario *Luigi *Peach *Daisy *Wario *Waluigi *Yoshi *Rosalina List of Minigames The game includes 10 minigames each from the 10 main games for a total of 100. The minigames can be classified by battle type, game of origin, and genre with the option to select some as favorites. *Bombs Away *Desert Dash *Face Lift *Piranha Pursuit *Shy Guy Says *Tug o' War *Bowser's Big Blast *Bumper Balls *Cake Factory *Dizzy Dancing *Handcar Havoc *Hexagon Heat *Honeycomb Havoc *Looney Lumberjacks *Mecha Marathon *Roll Call *Shell Shocked *Slot Car Derby *Speed Hockey *Bounce 'n' Trounce *Chip Shot Challenge *Eatsa Pizza *Ice Rink Risk *Mush Pit *Rockin' Raceway *Snowball Summit *Storm Chasers *The Beat Goes On *Three Door Monty *Tidal Toss *Vine With Me *Beach Volley Folly *Blame It On The Crane *Booksquirm *GOOOOOOOAL!! *Hide and Go BOOM! *Kareening Koopas *Mario Speedwagons *Order Up *Paths of Peril *Revers-a-Bomb *The Great Deflate *Three Throw *Trace Race *The Final Battle! *Button Mashers *Cage-in Cookin' *Coney Island *Defuse or Lose *Dinger Derby *Heat Stroke *Hotel Goomba *Ice Hockey *Later Skater *Leaf Leap *Manic Mallets *Night Light Fright *Pushy Penguins *Shy Guy Showdown *Squared Away *Triple Jump *Tube It or Lose It *Block Star *Catch You Letter *Crate and Peril *Dizzy Rotisserie *Rocky Road *Slot Trot *Snow Whirled *Strawberry Shortfuse *Trap Ease Artist *Balloon Busters *Dart Attack *Deck Hands *Jump, Man *Monty's Revenge *Pogo-a-Go-Go *Pokey Pummel *Sphere Factor *Stick and Spin *The Final Countdown *Track & Yield *Vine Country *Aim of the Game *At the Chomp Wash *Crank to Rank *Bumper Bubbles *Don't Look *Goomba Bowling *Logger Heads *Jigsaw Jumble *Magma Mayhem *Peak Precision *Pier Pressure *Speeding Bullets *Tackle Takedown *Badminton Bash *Flash Forward *Soar to Score *Jewel Drop amiibo Functionality The game supports all the amiibo from the Super Mario series. amiibos have 2 different purposes. In Minigame Island, tapping a Goomba amiibo will allow the player to gain an extra life and continue. Other amiibo earn the player extra coins. In the multiplayer, tapping a amiibo unlocks other minigame packs. Differences from other Mario Party games *Many minigames move notably faster, having less pause time between certain actions. *Many minigames do not retain their original music, instead using either other tracks from the same game or different games in general. For example, Speed Hockey uses the Mario Party 3 music track "Nice and Easy", instead of the track "Keepin' on the Path". **On a related note, the early Mario Party games, which had multiple "minigame win" tracks, are represented here by only one such track apiece. *Objects in minigames from the early Mario Party installments (e.g. the balls in Bumper Balls) no longer use the character's personal color, instead using red, blue, green and yellow based on the player number color, as has been the case since Mario Party 6. *Draws no longer occur if multiple players win, instead awarding first place to any player who wins the minigame. This does not occur in 2-vs-2 minigames. *Some minigames change their controls to take advantage of Nintendo 3DS hardware. Examples include Kareening Koopas and Crate and Peril using the gyroscope while Crank to Rank has players using the touch screen to rotate the crank. Some of the minigames are no longer required to use the microphone as well. *Players can skip CPU actions in certain minigames. *Winning and losing animations unique to the minigame, such as in Heat Stroke or Squared Away, have been removed. *Some minigames now have a 3-2-1 countdown to the start of the game. Examples include Slot Car Derby and Leaf Leap. *The Piranha Plant in Piranha's Pursuit is replaced with Petey Piranha. *The Bowser Suit of the lone player in Tug o' War has a Bowser face attached to it, with the character's head poking out. *The Shy Guy in Shy Guy Says does not have a jacket or eyepatch, though his pirate hat is still retained. The music also does not speed up as time passes. *The platforms in Hexagon Heat have different shapes imprinted on their surfaces, most likely to assist those with color blindness. The colors of the hexagons are also in different places than the original. Additionally, there is no longer any recoil from ground pounding another player. *The rules for Dizzy Dancing have changed. Now instead of just getting to the musical symbol to clear the game, players try to collect as many as possible. *In Roll Call, players no longer need to to guess the exact amount. Instead, the players who were closest to the actual amount will win. *Minigames from Mario Party 2 that have alternate variations only use one set variation. For example, Roll Call only makes players count Bob-ombs, while Slot Car Derby only uses one racetrack. **Similarly, minigames from Mario Party 6 take place only during the day. *Minigames from Mario Party 3 no longer have flat aesthetics. *In Snowball Summit, larger snowballs can now destroy smaller ones without breaking themselves. *A Mega Mushroom replaces the regular Mushroom in Toadstool Titan, which has been renamed Mush Pit. A new arrangement of the Mega Mushroom theme music from New Super Mario Bros. is used instead of the regular invincibility music as well. *The Beat Goes On starts with only two drums instead of four. Also, the minigame's theme has been shortened. *A Goomba replaces Boo in Three Door Monty. *Piranha Plants do not appear in Vine with Me, and characters recover faster from a fall if they miss a vine. *Koopa Troopas replace Shy Guys in Blame it on the Crane. *Fishin' Lakitus replace Klepto in Paths of Peril. *Mario Speedwagons now has three yellow lights instead of two. *In Trace Race, the clips at the start of the board are colored mushrooms instead of emblems pertaining to the characters. *The Koopa Kids in The Final Battle! have been replaced by Bowser Jr. *The player has 7 health points in The Final Battle! as opposed to 10. Falling into the lava results in losing one hit point, rather than automatically losing. *In the final segment of The Final Battle!, the camera rotates with the player instead of remaining in a stationary position. The switches are also ground level and do not require the player to jump on them first. *The pitching machines in Dinger Derby wind up and pitch baseballs noticeably slower than in Mario Party 5. *In American English, Triple Jump's distances are measured in yards instead of feet. The maximum distance is increased as well, capping at 60 metres/yards rather than 170 feet/55 metres. *Squared Away's ground is a 10 × 10 grid of blocks instead of 12 × 12. Also, it comes in only one design: that of an 8-bit Mario head. *Some of the icons in Slot Trot have been updated. The Koopa Shell has been replaced by a Koopa Troopa, the Buzzy Beetle uses its more updated design, and the Cloud and Paratroopa Shell are replaced by Bullet Bills and Boos. *The Shy Guys in Rocky Road have been replaced by Toad and Toadette. Additionally, players are no longer stunned if hit by their own teammate. *Balloon Busters now eliminates players one at a time instead of three at once, making it more similar to the Mario Party DS minigame Short Fuse. *The ball is easier to push and rolls around more quickly in Sphere Factor. As such, records now occur in a shorter length of time. *The cards in Aim of the Game descend noticeably faster than in Mario Party 8. *The minigame victory theme from Mario Party 8 has been updated to become finite. *In Speeding Bullets, the pipes sticking out from the ground are absent. *In Bumper Bubbles, the bubble's bump is somewhat weaker than in the original. *In the French, Spanish, and Italian versions, minigames whose names were originally in title case are no longer as such. Reception Mario Party: The Top 100 has received mixed reviews, currently averaging 59 on review aggregate site Metacritic, based on 40 reviews[http://www.metacritic.com/game/3ds/mario-party-the-top-100 Metacritic score for Mario Party: The Top 100]. Metacritic. Retrieved November 19, 2017. and 56.20% based on 15 reviews on GameRankings.[https://www.gamerankings.com/3ds/221210-mario-party-the-top-100/index.html GameRankings score for Mario Party: The Top 100]. GameRankings. Retrieved November 20, 2017. General praise has been given to the ability to play the game in brief time periods and the concept of the game being a simple compilation of nostalgic minigames from previous Mario Party installments, while the overall selection of minigames has been a point of contention. As with most Mario Party titles, critics have also praised the fun to be found if players have friends to play the game with. Common criticisms have related to the game's price and single-player content as well as it not being released on Nintendo Switch. Additionally, the game has been criticized for its amount of content in comparison with other Mario Party titles, with some arguing that the game therefore does not have much replay value. Writing for Hardcore Gamer, Kirstin Swalley scored the game 3.5 out of 5.Swalley, Kirstin. [http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2017/11/19/review-mario-party-the-top-100/279852/ Review: Mario Party: The Top 100]. (November 19, 2017). Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved November 20, 2017. Swalley opined that the game "is lacking in the more complex and competitive nature that fans of the series have come to look forward to", writing that the amount of content is very low in the title especially compared to previous Mario Party games, but praised it for its ability to "make for an enjoyable title for younger players who can easily grab some friends and compete in short spans of time". Swalley has also noted how the game lacks online play, though he praised the game's support for local play, making the experience the most enjoyable with friends. Greysun Morales, writing for Twinfinite, scored the game 2.5 out of 5, a score labeled as "poor".Morales, Greysun. [http://twinfinite.net/2017/11/mario-party-the-top-100-review/ Mario Party: The Top 100 Review]. (November 15, 2017) Twinfinite. Retrieved November 20, 2017. He praised the game's selection of minigames, the concept of creating a game solely focused on the minigames, and the fun to be had when played with friends, but criticized its "empty single-player mode with no replayability", also saying that the game "falls flat as an actual full-priced Mario Party title". Jordan Biordi of Comics Gaming Magazine also found the game to be mediocre, scoring it 5 out of 10.Biordi, Jordan. [http://www.cgmagonline.com/reviews/mario-party-top-100-3ds-review-slumber-party/ Mario Party: The Top 100 (3DS) Review - Slumber Party]. Comics Gaming Magazine. Retrieved November 20, 2017. He has written "how incredibly dull" the title is, saying that the modes are not substantial and that Minigame Island, the method to unlock minigames, gets tiring very quickly, also negatively describing the fluctuation of AI difficulty. Biordi has praised the graphics and sound as what he thought to be the only redeemable aspects, however, stating that "the graphics have been cleaned up and tailored well to the 3DS and the sound quality of the effects and music have also followed suit".= Nintendo eShop description Ever partied with Mario? Stuffed mouthfuls of pizza? Dodged penguins? Well, the party is back with the top 100 minigames in Mario Party™ series history! Test your memory, speed, and luck in a variety of multiplayer minigame types. With Download Play, up to 4 players can party on their own system with just 1 Game Card! This time, the fun comes faster, thanks to some fresh features, including a Favorites option for quicker minigame selection and streamlined instructions. Start playing and pretty soon you'll find there's only enough room for the best at this funfest! Pre-release and unused content Although they did not make it into the game, arrangements of the songs “Let’s Get a Move On” from Mario Party 3 and “Pandemonium” from Mario Party 9 can be found in audio files for Mario Party: The Top 100,https://mega.nz/#!1nwWUQaZ!i3w6a8Zh35yZOnh8u1Jv2QJrryNLHjiVRKN4VVQ5KGo implying that certain minigames from Mario Party 3 (Aces High, Ridiculous Relay, Water Whirled, and/or Dizzy Dinghies) and Mario Party 9 (Flinger Painting, Fungi Frenzy, and/or Hazard Hold) were at one point planned to be included in The Top 100, but later scrapped. References to other games *''Mario Party'' - The Mini-Game Island mode returns. Toad is faced in Slot Car Derby much like how he was in this game's Mini-Game Island. *''Mario Party 2'' - The Dueling Glove, Bowser Suit, Boo Bell, and Magic Lamp (renamed Genie Lamp) from this game appear as items. *''Mario Party 4'' - The Chomp Call from this game appears as an item. The Championship Mode also returns from this game. *''Mario Party 5'' - The Decathalon Mode from this game returns. *''Super Mario 64 DS'' - Wario's artwork is an updated version of his artwork from this game. *''Mario Party 8'' - Peach's artwork is an updated version of her artwork from this game. *''Mario Party: Star Rush'' - The portraits, animations and announcer voice are reused from this game. Minigame Match uses the same rules as Balloon Bash from this game. References External links *Official website *Official Japanese website ES: Mario Party: The Top 100 Category:2017 video games Category:Nintendo 3DS games Category:Nd Cube games Category:Nintendo games Category:Minigame collections Category:Party games